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YourDoctorintheFamily.com |
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DrRich's Grand Unification Theory of Health Care - Contents - SECTION 1 - The importance of the doctor-patient relationship and why we can't have it anymore SECTION 2 - The truth about health care rationing SECTION 3 - Health Care 2000 - how it got this way SECTION 4 - Secrets of managed care SECTION 5 - Portrait of a modern HMO SECTION 6 - The Clintonians Strike Back SECTION 7 - Rationing and Death - Covert rationing and end-of-life care SECTION 8 - Fixing our health care system
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Let’s say that, after reading this far, you’re willing at least to consider the notion of openly rationing health care. Of course, that even if this were the case, it wouldn’t necessarily mean you’re completely convinced that a fair and workable system for open rationing is possible, or even desirable. More likely, it would merely indicate that you realize how truly destructive covert rationing – the only other alternative – really is.
We’ve taken a long look at how it’s destructive. We’ve seen how, in attempting to avoid openly addressing the need to ration, we’ve placed our health care in the gentle hands of the Gekkonians, thus changing the driving mission of our health care system from “doing good” to “making profit.” All of the seemingly counterintuitive and counterproductive behaviors of modern HMOs make eminent sense when viewed in light of their true mission. Covert rationing has caused us to bend health care to the needs of the market, instead of the other way around.
We’ve seen how covert rationing has lent itself to the natural inclinations of the Clintonians as they attempt to gain control of the health care system through stifling regulations. Our determination not to notice the rationing permits them much latitude. The result, among other things, is their rapidly expanding use of the Regulatory Speed Trap to distract and intimidate the health care workers who decide how our health care dollars are spent.
We’ve seen how covert rationing is causing us to start down the dangerous road of assigning value to human life, ironically under the banner of “autonomy.”
Thus, we’ve seen how covert rationing is undermining the basic precepts of our society.
We’ve seen something else, too. We’ve seen how covert rationing is placing each of us and our loved ones in imminent danger, any time we get sick. For when we do get sick, every aspect of the health care system we rely upon to make us well is concerned only with not having to spend too much money on us.
To some extent, of course, a deep concern about spending is to be expected – and, it is necessary. We want the regulators to be concerned about maximizing the benefits of health care for society. We want HMOs to be concerned about maximizing benefits for their subscribers. We want everybody to be concerned about spending our limited resources wisely.
What we don’t want is for our doctors – as they sit at our bedside and make decisions about our health – to be primarily concerned about the needs of society, or about their continued ability to earn a living if they spend too much. We want them to be primarily concerned about our needs. Just like the citizen accused of a felony, we need that highly trained professional who takes up our cause, and jealously protects our rights and welfare in the face of all opposition. For, as long as our doctors fail to assume their traditional roles as our personal advocates, we will be completely at the mercy of a vast and complex health care system that is geared primarily toward saving (or making) money. Thus, the deterioration of the doctor-patient relationship occurs only at our own immediate peril.